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Star Fox (team)
Star Fox, also referred to as the Star Fox Team or Team Star Fox, is a legendary team of mercenaries and adventurerers-for-hire which has repeatedly defended the Lylat System in times of peril. Founded by James McCloud, the leadership passed through to his son, Fox, after his apparent disappearance. For a price, this crack group will fight against any threat to the Cornerian star system. Although it may appear that the Star Fox Team is motivated only by financial gain, they will only accept missions that serve to uphold justice. 'History' |-|Early history= 'Early Beginnings' Star Fox was founded by James McCloud and his best friend, Peppy Hare. Shortly into their new career, they were joined by a new member: Pigma Dengar. The team flew abound the Lylat System, finding work wherever they were. They earned so much that James decided to take out an 80-year loan to finance the team's headquarters and building rights to a new mothership from Space Dynamics that would transport the trio about the System, in conjunction with an android pilot for extra assistance, but they had to wait a while until it was completed. Star Fox tangled in battle after battle with Wolf O'Donnell during an uprising threat from an evil mad scientist named Andross. Occurrence at Venom Meanwhile, Andross unleashed a secret experiment that annihilated Corneria's cities and was arrested by General Pepper, tried for treason and finally banished to the far away desolate planet, Venom, for the casualties he caused on Corneria. Five years after the ordeal, General Pepper received reports from Corneria's observation station about sightings of bioweaponry appearing from Venom. The Star Fox team was then hired by General Pepper to investigate these reports, but the senior McCloud and Peppy had been betrayed by their own wingman, Pigma Dengar having been paid immense riches and betrayed his teammates to his new master Andross, delivering them into a deadly trap upon their arrival, from which there was seemingly no escape. Wolf O'Donnell of the future Star Wolf team was also suspected to have had a hand in the involvement. Only James's wingman, Peppy was barely able to escape, but managed to limp home in his badly damaged starfighter. Peppy returned home to Corneria and informed Pepper of Pigma's treachery and the danger Andross posed to the Lylat System. He also told James' son Fox of his father's fate. Fox was a cadet in the Cornerian Defense Army Academy when he heard the news that his father had met a violent end at the hands of the twisted genius, Andross. As the only survivor of the original Star Fox Team, Peppy insisted that the young Fox should take on the leadership of the group and form a new team of pilots. Thrust into the leadership role that he wasn't prepared for, Fox recruited the hot-tempered Falco Lombardi and the mechanical genius Slippy Toad to make up the new Star Fox Team. Still feeling guilty about sending James to his doom, Pepper began to worry for Fox's future and decided to take the young McCloud's career into his own hands too. |-|Lylat Wars= A few years after James went missing, Andross's Empire began to gather strength, and war was imminent. General Pepper decided to re-form the Star Fox Team, and set up a high budget around it. With new weapons, an automated robot, and James's Great Fox finally complete, Pepper recreated the team, with the now 18-year-old Fox McCloud as the new leader. With his dear friend Peppy Hare, Fox chose new members, including the skilled mechanic, Slippy Toad and former gang member, Falco Lombardi. Starting at Corneria, the team fought through Andross's minions throughout the Lylat System, making their way to their main base on Venom. Star Fox's service proved very valuable: since Corneria's defense forces did not have a tank corps, the Star Fox Team's Landmaster was the only vehicle that got to do the jobs on Macbeth and Titania. Slippy's Blue-Marine experimental battle submersible was the only available craft that descended to the depths on Aquas and discovered what Andross was up to. Peppy's expertise piloting advice and prior knowledge of Andross's forces was essential help, after he managed to escape from captivity at their hands. Falco was an aggressive fighter who helped knock out enemies while also always looking for shortcuts and alternate routes to get to the action quicker. As a member of the Star Fox Team, Slippy invented a wide variety of gadgets and vehicles including his "Bossometer" to detect the life force of Andross's powerful lieutenants, and his Blue Marine battle submersible allowed the Star Fox team to venture into the depths of the water world, Aquas. After many vitreous battles, the mercenaries reached the enemy stronghold on the planet Venom, where they encountered the infamous Star Wolf and accumulated quite some time in dogfighting with them. Finally, the crew made it to Andross's base, where Fox single-handedly challenged Andross in single combat. After a pitched battle, Fox narrowly defeated the warlord, Andross, and the threat was vanquished. The team returned to Corneria, where Pepper commended them and offered them positions in the Cornerian Army. Fox refused his offer, claiming they preferred working solo. They flew off, looking for jobs just as they had in the days of old, looking forward to a bright future. |-|Titania= After the victory over Andross's Empire, the Star Fox team flew many freelance missions during the years following the Cornerian-Venomian conflict. However, all was not well as time passed: After the conflict had been drawn to a close, the need for mercenary work became redundant and much needed money became harder to come by. The Great Fox and the Arwings became very aged while ROB also suffered from lack of new parts and had trouble keeping himself together, leaving him and the vehicles in dire need of repair. Due to his age, Peppy had retired from active flight duty but remained as a mentor. Even Slippy was barely able to keep up with the repairs and had traded in his role as an active pilot and started to develop various weapons and gadgets for the Cornerian R&D. Fox and Falco became frustratingly bored and were prone to bickering, which Falco found amusing. One day, Katt Monroe sent out an SOS to Falco that she was being attacked by an unseen assailant, giving Falco reason to ship out into action without consulting with the team, leaving them to follow him in haste. On Titania, Falco rescued Katt from the Goras and met up with the space hot rodders gang that were causing trouble for a remnant of Androssians after stealing their data tapes for a secret weapon. Meanwhile, the Star Fox team met with the Cornerian officer, Captain Shears at the Titanian research base, who informed them that the base was under attack from Androssians and asked them to deal with the gang that stole the data. Fox took the bait and attacked the group who Shears accused of being the Androssians, actually the space hot rodders, prompting Falco to retaliate by entering a dogfight with him. Despite using a barrel roll to deflect firepower, Falco ridiculed Fox for it since it would leave him unaware of where his opponent will be, until Fox hid from sight in the sun rays and launched homing lasers at Falco, crashing his Arwing in the desert. Following the dogfight, Falco started fixing his downed Arwing in the desert while wondering if either Fox has gotten better, or he's gotten worse. Back at the Great Fox, Peppy scolded Fox for his actions, noting that his father would not be pleased with his behaviour. Star Fox then start doubting Captain Shears's accusations since they knew Falco would never betray them to join any Androssians, Peppy even wonders about the base really being under attack when it was actually very quiet, sending Slippy in a Landmaster to investigate the problem. Slippy drove his Landmaster across the desert while having bad memories about the last time he landed on Titania, just as Goras attacked in order to take him hostage. The hot rodders then contacted Great Fox; Katt trashed Fox for Falco's disappearance while Fox and Peppy wondering why she's on the ship that Shears accusesed being Venomian. Both teams came to a truce and viewed the data to contain the D.N.A for a living being and not a weapon, revealed to be the genetic code of Andross himself, deciding to join forces and attack the base after ROB reported Slippy's disappearance. Fox and the hot rodders assaulted the base, the gang caused a distraction for the soldiers while Fox followed Peppy's guide to rescue Slippy from captivity, eventually finding the lab where Andross was being grown and Fox quickly getting into a sword fight with Shears after his true loyalties were revealed. Slippy attempted to reverse the growth process, but only accelerated it when Andross began to remember who Fox is and his hatred for him. Fox and Slippy then used the impounded Landmaster to finally destroy the feral Andross and escape the base. Outside, the hot rodders were unable to damage Goras until Falco arrived to save them by manipulating the creatures spitfire with the G-diffuser and barrel rolled thorough its body. Falco then decided to have a vacation, taking his Arwing with him, but told Fox to tell Katt to disband the gang and get out of trouble. |-|Sauria= Four years after the Titania incident and eight years after the Lylat Wars, the Great Fox approached an ancient world on the Lylat System's edge, where the team received a briefing from General Pepper of a crisis at Dinosaur Planet: chunks of the planet had broken off and may pose a threat to the welfare of the Lylat System. Realizing their finances needed improvement, alongside their aged vehicles and weapons, Fox, Slippy and Peppy took the job and traveled to Dinosaur Planet. However, only Fox made contact with the planet while Peppy stayed behind to work on his maps and Slippy continued work on developments and giving Fox vital advice. In need of a guide around the planet, Fox teamed up with Tricky, the EarthWalker's crown prince, using his sidekick skills to enable a successful quest to settle disputes and restore the planet back together. Later, after finding the fifth Krazoa Spirit, Fox parted ways with Tricky but not before saying that his mission would have been a failure without him, therefore giving Tricky an official Star Fox member badge, declaring Tricky an honorary member. By the end of the plight, General Pepper was pleased with the team's efforts and transferred their monetary reward for saving the Dinosaur Planet and stopping Andross once again. Falco also rejoined the team after saving Fox from being used as Andross's chew toy. With the reinstatement of Falco and the addition of the mysterious young woman, a telepathic vixen, Krystal, a new Star Fox team was born. |-|Aparoids= A year after the plight of Sauria, Andross's nephew and former Star Wolf pilot Andrew Oikonny had gathered all that remained of Venom's forces and challenged the Cornerian forces in orbit near Fortuna. The more organized Cornerians had Oikonny on the run despite constant surprise guerilla attacks from stealth forces. General Pepper called in the team to cut through the ongoing space battle and finish off Oikonny. After cutting through and hampering the Venom Forces, the team chased Oikonny's flagship to the surface of Fortuna. Oikonny, after a bit of boasting, attempted to continue his attack, but was blasted by a new hostile: an Aparoid. After the butterfly-like creature fired on the team, they fought back. They discovered and retrieved a core memory from the wreckage just before more of the same Aparoids appeared, poised to attack. Fox grabs the core memory and the team makes a break for it. After returning the core memory to Corneria R&D, the team gets word from General Pepper and Beltino Toad (father of Slippy Toad) about the Aparoids, how one destroyed an entire Cornerian fleet, and how the core memory they recovered is partially damaged and not yielding a lot of information. Pepper then dispatches the team to Katina where their outpost has triggered a distress signal. After defeating numerous waves of Aparoids, a giant Aparoid appears and attacks. Fox defeats the creature, and goes to retrieve its core memory, which appears to be fully intact. Then the distress signal stops transmitting and Fox and Peppy's old nemesis Pigma Dengar shows up, revealing that he triggered the SOS signal. He then steals the Core Memory and flees. Peppy tracks Pigma down to the Sargasso space station, a pirate and criminal safe haven controlled by Star Wolf leader, Wolf O'Donnell. Wolf's minions attempt to take on the team with battleships and gateway spawners, with no success. Then Wolf and Leon arrives with Star Wolf's new recruit, Panther Caroso, and challenges Fox, Falco, and Krystal. After a dogfight, the six pilots call time-out and Fox demands Wolf turn over Pigma. But Wolf claims Pigma is not only no longer a part of Star Wolf, he's not even welcome in Wolf's territory. Ultimately, Panther, being infatuated with Krystal, points the team toward Fichina. The team proceeds to Fichina only to find that Pigma tampered with the planet's climate control center and triggered a massive blizzard. Fox goes in first in a Landmaster to manually reactivate the climate control center so the Arwings can safely fly on the surface. But after resetting the system, the security sentry bots attack Fox, likely because of Pigma's tampering with the ID system. Falco arrives in time to save Fox from the bots and carry him out on his wing. The two proceed to attack the Aparoids that have infested the area while Slippy investigates the sentry bots. He then surmises that Aparoids can infect and control machines. Pigma arrives and shows that he's controlling them by infesting part of the center's engineering and triggers an overload of the climate control center's power reactors. Star Fox decides to let Pigma go for now and focus on saving the Climate Control center, the only thing keeping Fichina habitable. After destroying the infested machinery, the overload is halted. After continuing to track Pigma, Star Fox corners him at an unfinished base located inside an asteroid belt. They find his ship abandoned, but find Pigma now fully infected by the Core memory and transformed into a living Gorgon-like creature. The Aparoids, through Pigma, warn the team to cease hostilities and surrender to them. But they attack and destroy Pigma, recovering the stolen Core Memory. They send it to Pepper and Beltino, who use it to discover the location of the Aparoids' home planet, and information on their leader, the Aparoid Queen. Before they can return, Krystal senses trouble on Sauria and the team rushes to investigate. They arrive to find Sauria under severe attack from Aparoids. Krystal and Fox hit the surface of the planet while Falco and Slippy clear the skies. With the Aparoids defeated, Falco and Slippy return to the Great Fox. Fox and Krystal stay behind to check on their old friend Tricky, who is all grown up and now the king. Tricky offers to help, but Fox insists he stay to care for Sauria. He vows to do so, that way the two foxes could come back on their honeymoon, to which Fox is sent into a nervous panic. General Pepper then contacts Star Fox and warns them that Corneria was attacked while they were handling Sauria's Aparoid crisis. Pepper's transmission is cut off and the crew races to Corneria City. The Aparoids jam their radar with powerful jammers, so Fox must destroy them first. Afterwards, Peppy transmits an Arwing for him to use, but the Aparoids destroy the ship and surround Fox. They are ready to blast him, but then Wolf shows up and rescues him. Wolf claims he still owes Fox for attacking his base. After clearing out the remaining Aparoids, ROB spots an unknown vessel quickly approaching. Peppy recognizes it as General Pepper's flagship. It has been taken over by the Aparoids, and Pepper is infested and controlling the machine. He orders Fox to destroy him, but Fox panics, inadvertently allowing the Aparoids to wrest control of the machine from Pepper. Once the ship is destroyed, it plummets to the surface. Peppy shows up in an Arwing and takes the brunt of the crash, saving the General and routing the Aparoids. Beltino and the research team discover the location of the homeworld, and discover that they have a tendency for apoptosis (cells designed to self destruct). Beltino hurries to create a program that will set off a chain reaction in the Aparoids once fired at the Queen. The Aparoids attack Corneria's orbital facility to try and cut them off from the homeworld and destroy the self-destruct program. But Star Fox, the remnants of the Conerian Fleet, and Star Wolf fight them off until the program is ready. With the program ready, Star Fox rallies all available forces to invade the Aparoid Homeplanet. After proceeding through Corneria's Orbital Transmission Gate, they attack in full force. Once the base is secure, the team prepares to enter the planet and attack the Queen, but the Aparoids form an impenetrable barrier of energy, closing off the entrance. The Great Fox arrives, clearly being taken over by the Aparoids and damaged, and rams into the shield wall, shattering it. Fox resolves to press on into the planet. Behind them, the Great Fox is apparently crushed by the reforming wall and explodes. Star Fox and Star Wolf (who just barely made it through the hole in the shield) fight down to the Queen's lair. The Queen sends her strongest forces to stall them, but Wolf, Leon, and Panther volunteer to draw them off while the others proceed to the queen. They find the Queen, who attempts to null the team with voices from the memories of beings she's absorbed including Pigma, Pepper, Peppy, ROB, and even James McCloud. Fox and the team power though the voices and fire the program into the Queen. At first, it seems to be working, but then the Queen suppresses it, trying to escape and find a treatment. They chase after her and fully trigger the program. The chain reaction is successful and destroys the planet, the Queen, and any remaining Aparoids in the Lylat System, thus ending the Aparoid Wars. |-|Anglars= Some time after the Aparoid invasion the Star Fox team once again went into decline as the whole team went their separate ways with only Fox and ROB staying on. Falco left to find the thrills which he had during the past events which mirrors what he did before the incident on Sauria. Slippy left because he fell in love. Peppy was appointed the new General of the Cornerian forces after Pepper became confined to his sickbed. Unfortunately for Fox, Krystal disappears after being ashamed and heartbroken after Fox asked her to sad goodbye. And the Great Fox, which was destroyed during the Aparoid invasion, has been replaced by a new model which is considerably weaker. During the Anglar attack on the system, the Star Fox team rejoin in most storylines. One even includes Amanda, Slippy's fiancée, joining the team. It is also possible that, sometime after the events in Star Fox Command, Fox settled down with Krystal and had a son named Marcus. Inspired by his parents, he enrolled in the Cornerian Academy like his father, then soon started a new Star Fox team with Slippy's son and Peppy's granddaughter, with Falco serving a role similar to Peppy's as an adviser. However, it is unknown which ending is the true one, as Star Fox Command is currently the "last" game in the series chronologically. 'Vehicles' |-|Vehicles= |-|Arwing= The Arwing is the main air craft of the Star Fox team, it has appeared in all Star Fox games to date. Throughout their appearances the Arwings have had considerable changes, though all versions have retained the basics such as simple lasers that can be upgraded and Smart Bombs. The Walker is activated when the Arwing transforms and touches ground into it. This allows players to explore sections that would be too small for the Arwing or require slowed down exploration. The Walker is useful in areas such as the inside of the Androsa fortress because the tunnels would be too small for the fast flying Arwing, and the Walker can remain stationary when attacking the main reactor. |-|Landmaster= This tank first appeared in Star Fox 64 as a tracked light tank in two of the game's missions and one of the game's multiplayer maps. It appeared again in Star Fox: Assault, although with wheels replacing the tank treads for this game only, the tanks were also modified somewhat and acted as anti-air craft tanks. In Zero, an alternate flight upgrade of the Landmaster called the Gravmaster is the flying tank that serves best for increased mobility and airborne performance, but when the boost meter runs out the Gravmaster will revert into the normal Landmaster. |-|Blue-Marine= The Blue-Marine is a submarine vehicle, it has only been used once by Fox McCloud on the planet, Aquas. Instead of shooting bombs, the Blue Marine has an unlimited source of torpedoes. Strangely enough, this vehicle was never used again. It is unknown if it is even still in their arsenal. It is equipped with lasers like the Arwing, essentially performing the same way the Arwing would, only underwater. |-|Gyrowing= The Gyrowing is a slow-flying hovercraft ship that serves best at stealth missions. It can deploy a tethered robot called Direct-I to gather item pickups such as medals during a mission and simultaneously collect various items on platforms, such as medals and even hack into computers. The Direct-I robot can also fire at enemies to defend itself. |-|Great Fox= Great Fox is the teams base of operations and later their home, it is used for carrying the Arwings and other vehicles as well as back up against heavy assaults. ROB 64 is the primary pilot of the Great Fox. The Great Fox appearing in Star Fox Command acts as the successor to the original Lylat Wars Great Fox following the loss during the Aparoid Invasion. It launches star fighters and fires missiles to defend itself but cannot move on the map screen and will be destroyed instantly upon contact with enemies. The Mothership that appears in Star Fox 2 is essentially the games equivalent to the traditional Great Fox, but can only hold and repair star fighters and cannot take part in battle. 'Services and Legacy' The Star Fox team are elite commandos-for-hire, therefore they are not restricted to serving any one client, yet they will only work for commitments that serve justice. The team are known to have a long-standing, even personal connection with the Cornerian Military. Their payments are known to be very steep at times, evident by General Pepper acknowledging in Star Fox 64 after looking at the team's service invoice, "This is one steep bill! But it's worth it." or even an astounded "What?!". In Star Fox Adventures, it is only after Pepper notes to Fox that "your fee has been approved" that the team start to show immediate interest in their expedition on Dinosaur Planet. This is because they require a lot of money to make upgrades to their armoury and especially to pay off the 80-year loan James McCloud took out to purchase the original Great Fox. The Star Fox team's successful, reputable work seems to have a positive, morale boosting effect on friendly Cornerian pilots, evident by the above quote. Krystal's change of employment to Star Wolf apparently made her unpopular with the Cornerian public as two dogs mock her behind her back, believing her to have betrayed the Star Fox team in the Star Fox Command's ending 4 Star Wolf Returns. 'Team motto' The original Star Fox team's basic motto has still remained a trademark motive throughout the team's years of service. Peppy Hare still continues to use and rephrase this quote. Fox chose to hold onto this phrase when denying the Apaorid Queen's immitation of his father. *According to the Lylat Wars Comic, the Team's motto is "All for one and one for all". This is an obvious reference to the The Three Musketeers. 'Trivia' *In promotional materials for the original SNES game, the entire team had what initially appeared to be metallic-looking feet and ankles rather than large boots. It was theorized that the Star Fox team had their legs amputated and replaced with futuristic prosthetics to prevent loss of consciousness while flying, as gravity tends to force blood away from the brain and toward the lower extremities. However, at around the time of the release of Star Fox Zero, both Shigeru Miyamoto and Dylan Cuthbert have stated separately that this is not the case, with the former stating that it was merely an aesthetic. Many false claims have been made around Fox and Falco's legs, however they have not been removed in the official canon. In all other appearances to date, including Star Fox 2 for the Super NES Classic, the boots were redesigned to be more natural-looking and less alien-looking. 'References' *NINTENDO POWER Star Fox 64: Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Redmond, WA, Nintendo of America. 1997. *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/greatfox.html *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/fox.html *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/falco.html *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/peppy.html *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/slippy.html *http://f.starfox-online.net/archives/starFox64.comReconstructed/titania.html *''Star Fox Adventures'' (Instruction booklet) *''Star Fox Assault'' (Instruction booklet) Category:Star Fox Category:Organizations in video games Category:Nintendo protagonists Category:Fictional mercenaries Category:Fictional military organizations